Those 3 US Soldiers who subdued that terrorist. They got a French medal from the French president himself.
Can that French medal be worn on a US military uniform?
Certain foreign decorations (actually, quite a lot of them) are allowed to be worn on US military uniforms, and that includes the French Legion of Honor.
ETA: Here’s a list.
You are not supposed to wear foreign decorations unless you have at least as many American decorations to go with them. If you have X American decorations, then you can wear up to X foreign decorations.
All American are decorations are supposed to get pride of place over any foreign decorations. If you have two or more rows of decorations, the American decorations go on a higher row. Within a row, the American decorations go to the wearer’s right, or the viewer’s left.
According to Army Regulation 600-8-22:
“Commanders (overseas and CONUS) serving in the rank of (Brigadier General / one-star Rear Admiral) or above and (Colonel / Navy Captain) commanders who exercise general court-martial authority are delegated authority to approve the acceptance, retention, and permanent wear of foreign decorations listed in appendix E.
(Appendix E lists the French National Defense Medal and the French Commemorative Medal as the only ones currently authorized.)
Any individual foreign decoration not listed in appendix E will be forwarded to Commander, U.S. Army Human Resources Command, Awards and Decorations Branch at Fort Knox for approval.”
In other words: it requires approval from the Army Human Resources Commander, but it is possible.
Emphasis added because it highlights an important distinction. One is an Airman so Air Force regulations apply to wear of the award not Army regulations. The other I have only seen referenced as a National Guardsman without specifying branch of service. Both Air and Army units exist withing the National Guard so that term alone doesn’t specify which set of uniform regulations apply.
Skartalos is an Army National Guard Specialist (E-4) ; Stone is an Airman First Class (E-3). So Army for one, USAF for the other.
Also, the Legion of Honor is not only a military medal, France issues it as both a military decoration and a civilian honour, although as seen there is a ribbon to represent it when worn in US uniform if so authorized. The quoted regulations mention specificaly the Commemorative Medal and the Defense Medal because those are the ones that are currently more commonly granted to foreign troops serving jointly with French commands, so they will be seen far more frequently. One could suppose the Brass may, in the light of the publicity, grant the wear of this honour to these two individuals on a special merit basis.
Here’s the Air Force regulation:
"Air Force members may accept foreign awards or decorations tendered in recognition of active field service in connection with combat operations or awarded for outstanding or unusually meritorious performance only upon receiving official approval to accept the award or decoration.
Normally, before an award or decoration is presented to an Air Force general officer, senior representatives of the US government are notified initially by representatives of a foreign government of the intent to proffer a decoration. At this point, an official determination of acceptance is made by representatives of the US government (Department of State (DoS), US Embassy, US Defense Attaché Office (USDAO), or Military Command); therefore a request to accept and retain foreign award or decoration by general officers is not
required. All other Air Force personnel and general officers awarded a foreign award or decoration without an official determination of acceptance must request authority to accept and retain a foreign award or decoration through their servicing Military Postal Service (MPS)."
My guess is that France asked the ambassador, who asked SecDef, who notified the appropriate commands, who, know what was a PR goldmine, said “Sure!”
What’s going to be funny is seeing these guys with the Good Conduct medal on the top row, and the Legion of Honor in an inferior position.
Considering that the US Ambassador accompanied them when they accepted the award, I would expect that it was approved through channels.
In the Army, soldiers are permitted to wear one authorized individually earned foreign award (foreign awards earned by their unit throughout its history do not count against this). Foreign awards are worn on the right side of the chest (the wearer’s right), above other unit awards. The soldier can chose which foreign award to wear, so long as only one is worn at a time and that US awards are also worn. Also, foreign awards are only worn on the Class A or Dress uniform.
There are exceptions, sure as the Philippine Liberation & Defense medals, my Dad wore both. But the Philippine’s occupied a unique political relationship with the USA anyway.
Sadly, Airman Stone is in critical condition after being repeatedly stabbed in Sacramento.
CNN is reporting serious but not life threatening injuries.
Let’s hope he’s gonna get to hang on to that Good Conduct medal! His Uncle don’t like his boys to be getting in knife fights in bars.
An early report is that Stone was stabbed protecting a female companion.
Those aren’t individual awards.
The report I read didn’t say specifically “protecting a female companion” but did mention his party was him, one other male, and three females. So it’s possible to interpret what happened the way you describe.
That young man needs to take care of himself, or the USAF may have to medically retire him. 